Crunch the 1720 numbers at this essence of Crosshaven home

Drake's View has 1,720 sq ft, a 'magic' number that will chime with RCYC yachties

Cross-sights: 1,720 sq ft Drake's View on the Camden Road dates to the 1960s: the sale via Hodnett Forde includes a site of 0.4 acre

Camden Road, Crosshaven, Cork Harbour
€1.1m in two lots, €800k house, €300k site
Size	1,720 sq ft
Bedrooms	5
Bathrooms	3
BER	D2

THE type of person likely to be attracted to this classic, 1960s-era house on Crosshaven’s elevated Camden Road will be tickled by the exactly calculated  square footage of this five-bed family home.

Drake's View up close

The floor area of Drake’s View is 1,720 sq ft, and that just happens to coincide with the founding date of the world’s oldest yacht club in 1720, the RCYC, or, to give it its fuller name: The Royal Cork Yacht Club.

RCYC old clubhouse and slip of 50 years ago

The RCYC has undergone several name changes in the 305 years since, having started as The Water Club of the Harbour of Cork, later shortening to Cork Harbour Water Club, and again to the Cork Yacht Club.

For most of its existence it had been based at Queenstown, later known as Cobh. After a grant of a royal charter in 1831, it acquired the prefix ‘Royal’ and it became known as the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

The RCYC merged with the Royal Munster Yacht Club and moved across Cork harbour’s expanses in the 1960s, to where it now resides, in Crosshaven, growing all the time across its base, marinas and moorings, and with members owing craft from pram-sized starter dinghies to ocean-crossing yachts.

A small fleet of 1720 racing keelboats

Among the various craft is one name in honour of the club’s founding date, the 1720 class 26’ racing keelboat, with fleets active in Ireland and overseas since the 1900s.

Coming to market for the first time in decades is the 1,720 sq ft Drake’s View, a classic sort of 1960s detached two-storey home on an acre, on a height above Crosshaven, on the road to Camden Fort. It has engrossing vistas spanning Cork harbour to the east, over to Cobh on Great Island as well as Haulbowline; Currabinny woods is closer, and then up the Owenabue estuary, too, with views towards scenic and wooded Drake’s Pool.

Drake’s Pool is where Sir Francis Drake sailed for safety when being pursued by a a Spanish armada back in the late 1500s: truly, Crosshaven has its feet steeped and toes dipped in maritime lore and centuries of history. Drake’s View itself was designed and built in the early 1960s, changing hands only once, later that decade, and has been owned by the same family since.

House plus site, offered separately by agent Andy Donoghue

It’s now a probate sale on behalf of the family, who had links to the bar trade, and it’s on a rare and valuable acre, in a part of Cork harbour where some spectacular contemporary homes are coming on stream regularly, many being built at costs of €1m and upwards.

Selling by way of auction is Andy Donoghue, of Hodnett Forde, and he has split it in lots of the house (on 0.65 of an acre, with a guide of €800,000), and of a deep site, but slightly narrower, of 0.4 of an acre, guided separately at €300,000.

Mr Donoghue says it’s set into an elevated plot, “with commanding, uninterrupted views stretching across Cork Harbour, westwards to Crosshaven bay and up-river towards Drake’s Pool, this iconic 1960s residence has the hallmarks of a design period which promoted space, light and views”.

View towards Currabinny woods

On a gently inclined site with mature gardens, tiered to the back and within a short walk of Crosshaven village, shops, cafes, services and berths, Drake’s View has an entry porch, a deep lounge/dining room with reconstituted, coloured stone chimney breast, kitchen, office, two optional, ground-floor bedrooms, plus guest WC and shower room.

Meanwhile, up above are three/four more bedrooms, one with en suite, and from one of the front bedrooms there’s gable-wall door access to a sun terrace on the side and half way across the front of the property.

Sublime setting

The lower section of driveway has a double car-port, and at the uppermost section are a garage and sheds.

VERDICT: Hold the fort for one of Camden’s finer-set private homes. There should be a pre-Easter buzz at the auction on Thursday, April 17 at 3pm, when would-be buyers take a view on the sale of 1,720 sq ft Drake’s View and the next-door site, at the appropriate venue of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.